Sunday, September 24, 2017

I am enjoying the hand stitching of my applique borders. I have completed the vines and some of the berries and leaves. What is left are the varied flowers and centers. Here is one of two borders laid out. I used Eileens glue in the squeeze tube to attach the background.

Here is a close up of the needle work, although the photo doesn't do it justice.

Here are a few photos from the Apple Harvest Fest with the grands. Despite the 90 degree weather, we had fun. It is great to be outdoors and see such fun things. Thy little guys aren't quite old enough to participate in the crafts, yet. But it is yearly, so we will have more visits.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Oh, time to get away, quilt with others, and have meals prepared away from home.
I love to accomplish so much in a weekend while being with other quilters. So inspiring.
And I can pick up other suggestions for all kinds of things like storage, patterns. tricks and so much. I even visited a local quilt store.

Here is the project I am so happy to have gotten out. I started my Log Cabin Quilt along in January and got the center blocks and all the prep work for this applique started. Here is the link for the center.Log cabin quilt along But it sat. And now I got 2 borders laid out and glued basted. I have even decided to do hand applique and have a lot of the stems and red berries sew on one of the borders.

Here are some of the projects others were working on:

Such a cute quilt and he was doing another one in a different colorway.

This one was a challenge quilt that a group of them got fabrics for.

This is mostly Kaffe and purple: the theme of our quilt show in March is Everything goes with purple. And the quilter LOVES purple.

Loved this one which was for a friend who retired. There are more bear's paw blocks for it.

Scenery break. I just love the lake.. Love, love, love.

Oh, and this wool applique has so many little blocks and then the patchwork in between.

This lovely lady made the cutest art quilt about her dog, but it is blurred.

So much more, but I can't download too many pictures at a time on my phone. Be inspired.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Yeah! I finished my first week of school. And things went smoothly. I even went to a cross country meet after school one day. I so empathise with those teams as my son did it for one year until he grew 6 inches. They are remarkable to be able to run despite weather and terrain.

So the weekend is here. I had pre-purchased tickets and I2 one hour lectures for Madison's Quilt Expo. Love it. I drove at 7:00 in the morning to get there and competed with the UW Wisconsin football traffic for the game at 11:00.

Here are highlights of some of the 300 quilts displayed there. The assortment from wall hangings and quilts were in a variety of styles and in row upon row and oh, so inspiring.

This first quilt is 3 dimensional depicting 3 different replications of famous paintings.

Oh, my and the "frame", although made of fabric was dimensional as if a real wooden ornate one.

Sorry, for the poor photography.

I had to include this quilt as Wisconsin is known for its cheese and therefore cows, as well.

So bright and Moovelous!

This beauty is the Best of Show and her comments are below. The intricacies of the piecing are incredible. And up close the quilting was, too.

This incredible hand appliqued and hand quilted one was so fresh. The colors were more better up close. The border is piped.

For the next quilt, the close up quilting wowed me.

But I love the quilt as it is an adapted perspective of a double wedding ring which was pieced. Details to the outer border were intricately quilted flowers in a rainbow of stripes.

As the day also was my husband's birthday, I was impressed with the spirited version of celebratory cakes and party favors.

More to come. But did you see the edge of the one above. Piping in rainbow of colors each knotted.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

So first up are a bunch of fabrics along with a small roll of Green Bay colors for a 2nd wall hanging.

( Did not include 2 yards of green with gold stars.)

This were carefully selected from Back Door Quilts in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Great owner,

She always has a deal of buy 3 fat quarters and get one free. And I needed orange and purple for Halloween.

Whittles online has great deals and selection of extra wides. The blue dirty looking dots is a Grunge extra wide. I needed it for the Meadow Mist Mystery. ( A lap quilt needed 4 and 1/3 yards. ) And I bought 5 yards, forgetting to take into account 108 inches instead of 42. Oh, well , more for another project or maybe the back. The batik fat quarters were a real deal. The text print was from a friend.

Here are my fabrics cut for the Meadow Mist Mystery. ( Tomorrow I will cut the background.)

And I wanted to show the little progress I made on my embroidery. Slow and steady wins the race.

Monday, September 4, 2017

My spouse and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Door County in Wisconsin for the long weekend. We both truly love being on or by the water and although the weather was somewhat cool for early September, it was delightful. We stayed at a B and B and walked around. We found many great art pieces at an outdoor art fair; and just enjoyed watching nature.

Here are a few of nature's highlights:

Sunset on Egg Harbor

Gorgeous view across the water! Love the crystal clear water with multitudes of pebbles.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Tomorrow I go back to school for meetings. There are fun things planned for staff to reacquaint themselves with each other. And I feel that there are several new directives in place for kids to be more productive. ( No phones; they all have computers.)

So I am trying to get several things accomplished. I did get some cleaning jobs accomplished. Yeah for the windows.

But here are the latest:

First up: my embroidery; I have not touched in in over a month. It felt good to work again. I need to plug, plug away at it.

Second, here is the latest Blockheads # 25.

And lastly something fun. I have organized my Halloween colors and searched patterns to make a row quilt. And I had fun making this cute little witch. She and her friend, Froggy, need buttons for eyes.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

I am getting anxious, just like many other moms and teachers. Summer is winding down. I am counting the last of my quilting days. Ugghhh. I really was able to quilt lots this summer. But the party has to end sometime.

Next week back to school meetings. And then Labor Day weekend and then SCHOOL.
The fun of a new schedule with new kids. A new year, a new beginning. At least that is what I keep
telling myself.

So on that theme: here is my latest "experiment"

The schoolhouse block?

I pulled out some fun colors and started the School house blocks. It took me several tries to master the paper pattern pieces. Oh, to shoot a printer someday!
( Pattern originally from All People Quilt Home for the Harvest by Carrie Nelson)

The trick: that pesky peak to match the chimney. Using their paper pieces for the roof KEY in my estimation. Also make sure to print to scale.

And as the pattern shows there is a mini. Yeah! for minis!! I don't know why but I have always enjoyed the smaller sizes, maybe because I am kind of smaller as people go.